Manifolding book



Jan. 22, 1929. 1,699,631

w. A. PRINGLE MANIFOLDING BOOK Filed Nov. 15, 1924 7V 2 QIITJWTIOR W mysum ATTORNEYS Y Patented Jan. 22, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM A. PRINGILE, or NIAGARA FALLS; NEW YoRK, ASSIGNOR '10 AMERICAN SALES BOOK COMPANY, LIMITED, or TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, A CORPORATION OF ONTARIO, CANADA.

mANIIoLnINe BO0K.'

Application filed November 15, 1924. Serial No. 750,023.

This invention relates to record sheets, strips and the like and with respect to its more specific features to the adaptation of such sheets and strips for. filing or for cooperation with manifolding machines, especially autographic registers.

One object of the invention is the provision of a practical device of the character described having a weakened or tearing line which will not substantially interrupt the surface of the sheet nor thicken the sheet at f the weakened line.

A further object is the provision of a strip, adapted to be fed in a manifolding autographic register or like machine, with a weakened line such that feed in the register without objectionable interference. by the registering instrumentalities and without injuring the carbon transfer sheets, will be promote A further obj ectof the invention is to provide a practical pad of substantially uniform thickness throughout though composed of a great number of superposed sheets or leaves in which the weakened lines are also in ap-. proximately superposed relation.

7 A further object is to provide a sheet having a line of severance which when severed may have its edges brought together agaln Without buckling.

A further object is to provide a sheet with a line of severance which because of its nature will be biased to fold in one direction.

A further object is to provide a pad adapted for use with automatic machinery such for example as manifolding machinery, having lines of severance in the successive sheets of such a character that the thickness of the pad will not be locally increased due to the line of severance.

In the construction of record sheets, it has been proposed .to provide lines of weakness therein for the purpose of facilitating the tearing of the sheet before or after inscription for any one of a variety of purposes, as for example, it may be desired after inscription to tear a portion of the sheet from the remainder, to separate a record contained filing aperture and an adjacent edge to facilitate placing the filing aperture over a filing post from the side.

The methods of producing such line of weakness, however, have proved unsatisfactory for many purposes. For example, with the zigzag form of book comprising a plurality of strips interfolded zigzag to form a plurality of sets of record leaves, if the leaves contain lines of weakness which are thicker than the sheet, such as customarily results from perforating the paper at spaced intervals, and if such perforated lines he asymetrically disposed the resultant greater thickness of the pad opposite the thickened line of weakness is of inconvenience in the pad and the factthat it is asymetrically disposed is apt to interfere with the proper feeding of the sheets in registry.

Moreover, where such thickened lines of 'weakness pass over the edges of interposed carbon sheets, the projections hitherto due to the line of weakness engage and fray the carbon sheets.

Furthermore, when the line of weakness is formed by perforating the sheets at spaced intervals, not only is the appearance of the sheet marred, but the edges of the perforations project outside the surface and interfere with the carbon-sheets employed.

It has heretofore been proposed to provide manifolding machine pads, comprising a plurality of sheets attached end to end in a continuous strip, with filing apertures in the separate sheets having openings entirely through the sheets connecting the filing apertures with the adjacent edges of the sheets. The operation of such sheets, however, in manifolding devices has not been satisfactory for the reason that the edges of the filing apertures are apt. to engage and deface or tear the interposed carbon sheets.

sheets showing struction, and-operation of sheets and pads as herein referred to.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts, which will be exeinplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a cross section of a sheet weakened in accordance with this invention, an for convenience it is illustrated as a section along the line 11 of Fig. 2;

Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are modified forms of difierent Ways in which the invention may be utilized; and

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a pad and sheets embodying this invention.

The numeral 3 designates a sheet, or strip, of paper which, as illustrated in Fig. 1, is magnified many fold, more clearly to illustrate the manner of weakening. For manifold purposes the sheet 3 will be of thin, soft paper. At the point to be weakened, the sheet is slit at 2 being cut from one face of the paper part way through to the other side but not entirely through the sheet. This provides a line of weakness, or severance, along which the sheet may readily be torn. The slitting may be conveniently done by a rotary knife which should be kept sufliciently sharp so that the fibers of part of the thickness of the sheet are severed without burring. Thus, the edges of the slit will lie side by side without thickening the sheet at the line of weakness. Furthermore, in order to prevent raising the o posite face of the sheet directly opposite t e slitted line, and to maintain said opposite face flat and flush with the adjacent surface.

of the sheet, said opposite face should be preferably firmly backed by a smooth platen during the slittlng. In this way the material of the sheet directly opposite the slitted line will be continuous cross-wise of the slit and flat and flush with the adjacent surface.

The edges of the slit can be made to lie close I together or appreciably separate as desired,

by flexing-the sheet while it is out, either toward or awayfrom the cutting edge.

In Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5, there is shown the application of this invention to record sheets having apertures, as filin apertures, therein where it is desired to ma e a weakened connection, or line, between the filing aperture 'and an adj acent edge of the sheet. Thus, in a sheet 3 of Fig. 2, there are provided filing apertures 4 extending entirely through the sheet adjacent one edge thereof, while a weak ened line 5, leading from the aperture 4 to the adjacent edge 6 of the sheet, may be formed by slitting the sheet half way through as before described. In this figure, the weakened linev connects the nearest edge of the filing aperture 4 with the adjacent edge of the sheet. In the form illustrated in Fig. 3, the filing aperture 7 is connected to the adjacent edge of the sheet 8 by cutting half way through the sheet on two substantially parallel lines 9 and 10.

As illustrated in Fig. 4, a line may be half out through the sheet as shown at 11, slanting toward the edge of the sheet from the perforation. In the form illustrated in Fig. 5,

d the weakened line 18 may extend between the filing aperture and the edge of the sheet, but with an unsevered portion 19 or 20 at one or both ends thereof.

With these constructions by reason of the fact that the sheet is out part way through, when it -is completely severed forplacing upon filing pins, the edges of the sheet at the line of severance will lie side by side without buckling, since the fibers at this point are cut and he'nce'there is no jagged line of fibers which do not fit smoothly together.

In Fig. 6, the, invention is illustrated as applied to a sheet in which it is desired to sever one portion of the sheet from the remainder after inscription. To this end, a weakened line 21- may be provided separating such portion of the sheet from the remainder by cutting the sheet halfway through as before described between the two portions. Thus, for example, if it be desired to have a sheet containing a portion giving the price and a second portion giving the cost, such sheet may pass through one department, intact, and thereafter the portion of the sheet bearing the cost may be removed by tearing along the weakened line, and the remainder transmitted to another department.

With the form of weakening described it will be seen that the sheets Wlll fold more readily in the direction to open the slit than in the reverse direction. Hence, the sheet will have a definite bias at the fold.

An important feature of the invention relates to the pad which may be formed. Because the superposed sheets of which the pad is composed are weakened in the manner hereinbefore explained, the ad will not bul e due to the presence of wea ened lines, as is tfie case where the sheets are weakened by perforating, and as is especially noticeable in pads wherein weakened lines are directly superposed. This aspect of the invention is especially noticeable and particularly advan-' tageous in the form' of pad illustrated in Fig.7, in which a plurality of long, thin, soft, paper runner strips are folded zigzag, the folds of one strip being inter-engaged with those of the others so as to provide superposed sets of superposed record leaves con.-

each of the sheets may be provided with a-longit-udinal series of punch openings, or feed control apertures, as for example, 23, wholly through the strip near one end of each set.

of forms and with supplemental lines of weakness 24 leading from the feed control apertures 23 to the transverse lines of weakness 25, at the fold lines, along which latter lines the strips may be parted at different points in their lengths. By reason of the fact that the weakened lines 24 and 25 are made by slitting part way through the strips,

as hereinbefore set forth, no thickening of the pad will'result due to relative location of strips of the machine to these lines in the pad, and hence the sheets will lie flat in the package and will feed through thelmec'hanism symmetrically, and without injury to themselves or the delicate elements of the machine. I v

It will be observed that as thestrips of the pad of Fig. 7 are fed in a manifoldi'ngmachine,the-supplemental lines 24, advance lengthwise and being straight, there is prac-" ticallyno tendencyfor theiredges to catch in the machine or for the edges of the carbon catch in these suppleinental line s.

-Where the invention is used as a lineof separation between'successive sheets of a continuous strip, the form of weakening employed will facilitate folding the strip be tween the sheets. When, moreover, the cutting, or slitting, be erformedalternately on different sides of tie sheet,- it, will be seen that the sheet will be biased by the cutting to fold zigzag in a definite manner, sineeit is easier for the partially severed sheet to fold in a direction to open the cut or slit than in having transverse lines of weakness and a 'above construction and different embodiments of'the invention could be made with out departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompan ying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features .of the invention herein described, and all statements of claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

' 1. A'soft thin sheet of paper slit partway but notentirely therethrough from one face to formaline of weakness' in the sheet, said sheet having an aperture wholly therethrough towhich said line of weakness leads.

.2. A soft thin sheet of paper but not entirely therethrough from one face to form a line of weakness in the sheet, the opposite face of said sheet at said weakened line being flat andflush with the adjacent surface of the sheet, said sheet having an aperture wholly therethroughto which said line of weakness leads.

3. A long runner strip of soft thin paper having a longitudinal series of feed control apertures punched wholly therethrough,

transverse lines of weakness along which the strip may be parted at different points in its length, and supplementary lines of weakness leading from said transverse lines' to said apertures, respectively.

4. A long runner strip of soft thin paper having a longitudinalseries of feed control apertures punched wholly therethrough, transverse lines of weakness along which the. strip may be parted at different points in its length, and supplementary lines of weakness leading from said transverse lines to said apertures, respectively, said strip having slits partway but'not entirely therethrough, from one face, forming said supplementary lines of weakness,-the opposite face of said strip at said supplementary lines bein flat and flush with the adjacent surface 0 the. strip. 5. A long runner strip of soft thin paper opening wholly therethrough, and a lme of weakness extending toward said opening, the thickness of the sheet being slit partway but not wholly therethrough to provide said line.

7. A pad composed of a plurality of long, soft, thin paper record strips folded zig-zag,

.the folds of one strip interengaged with those of the othersso as to provide superposed sets of superposed leaves connected end to end, each strip having a line of weakness at its fold line, said line in one of said strips being provided by a slit, or slits, partway but not slit partway entirely through the strip from one .face, each between each set of said forms, formed by a of said leaves having an aperture wholly cut extending partway through from one face therethrough and a supplementary line of to the other, successive lines of severance be- 1 weakness leading from said aperture toward ing cut from alternate sides, whereby the 6 an edge of the leaf. sheet is biased to refold zigzag.

8. A" record strip containing a succession In testimony whereof I afiix my signature. of sales record forms and a line of severance WILLIAM A. PRINGLE. 

